


Normal people things

by unifiedchaos



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-09 23:59:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12899649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unifiedchaos/pseuds/unifiedchaos
Summary: Kusanagi Shoichi thinks about the life he's made for himself. Based on speculation from the little snippets we saw of him (and his brother) in episode 29.





	Normal people things

“Have you thought about college, Yusaku?”

The question came out of nowhere, breaking a prolonged period of still concentration.

Fujiki Yusaku, hands flying over a glowing blue keyboard, didn’t even pause.

“No,” he said flatly, eyes fixed on the screen before him, “Three reasons: 1) I gain no noteworthy benefit from a college education. 2) There is no valuable knowledge about The Hanoi Project that a college education could give me. 3) Neither of us have even _close_ to the amount of money required to fund such a massive waste of time.”

Yusaku finally took his hands off the keys as he waited for a process to run.

“Why the sudden question, Kusanagi-san?”

Mostly, it’s just because while he worked on his program, Kusanagi Shoichi suddenly felt like moving his mouth to talk and break the silence of the night.

“I had a chatty customer,” Shoichi took a break to stretch in his chair, his back creaking audibly despite his relative youth, “we were parked near a college today, remember? This man said he was visiting his son there. Well anyway, he saw you at your laptop and asked if you were studying for college entrance exams.”

“I have a couple years before _that_ waste of time happens. But Kusanagi-san, you knew my answers before you even asked that question, didn’t you?” Yusaku raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe I did,” Shoichi sighed, sitting back and running his own process, “maybe that customer made me think about _normal people things_.”

“And what would ‘normal people things’ be?”

Had the volume not been shut off, Ai would have chimed in with some snide remark about how neither Yusaku nor his benefactor Shoichi would be able to live ‘normal’ lives. Instead Ai glared at them from his spot in the duel disk, looking every bit the part of a kicked puppy. Except an eyeball.

Shoichi is aware of that fact, dry eyes staring at a screen, his and Yusaku’s faces bathed in blue light as a corner of his mind tells him to go the fuck to sleep, it’s 3am, they’ve been up since Yusaku got back from school at 2pm, and the café has been shut the entire time since then, so they could work on this new program.

An opposite corner of his mind from _this_ screaming one is running the math. He hasn’t served dinner, and he’s only served part of lunch. How much business has he lost? How much have gas and supplies cost recently?

Yusaku never knows this part of Shoichi’s brain because he’s just never thought to discuss it with him. It’s none of his business, and he only deals with it after he’s dropped Yusaku off at his rundown apartment after some adventure.

Kusanagi Shoichi doesn’t have an apartment himself. The van doesn’t charge him rent. ‘Rent’ for him is instead gas money and a 24-hour gym membership so he can use the shower and bathroom. He’s pretty sure he hasn’t seen a green vegetable in several months, as he doesn’t stock many of those in Café Nagi. It’s a wonder his body still works as well as it does.

“Good job. I’ll send you home.”

If there’s anybody that sleeps as little as Shoichi and Yusaku do, it’s probably college kids. The van hummed at a red light as some, zombified by the semester, hobbled across the street after a night out.

Shoichi wonders if in some alternate dimension he went to college and partied with other dudes his age in his spare time. Instead he got his driver’s license immediately after graduating high school and eventually, after working jobs hacking, bought the hot dog van.

He likes selling hot dogs, anyway. It’s a front, but at least it’s an honest living, compared to hacking. It takes his van places while scrounging for customers, and there’s not one person in Den City who doesn’t like hot dogs, including himself and Yusaku.

Speaking of, Yusaku is in his passenger seat, fast asleep. He’d carry him to the back and give him a blanket if there weren’t school tomorrow. Plus, that tiny robot maid of his would get worried.

_Kids his age shouldn’t be on vigilante missions. Kids his age should be in school and playing with their friends._

Shoichi thinks about how neither Yusaku nor Jin have anybody close to them except him.

“Do you think veggie dogs would be popular? Like, I could add a vegan sausage option. Or dessert! We don’t have a dessert menu,” Shoichi said cheerfully into the night, knowing Yusaku was unconscious and wouldn’t answer. It wasn’t a serious question anyway.

He just wanted a conversation ‘normal’ people would have, like the ones he has with his customers.

Unlike the ones he has with Yusaku about hacking and the Knights of Hanoi and over the phone with Jin’s therapists, discussing his current condition.

_Shit, another red light._

Shoichi’s fingers tap impatiently on the wheel when he notices where he is.

If he took this turn, it wouldn’t be long to the highway, and perhaps an impromptu road trip to the hospital where Jin is hosted, many hours away.

He got a call this morning saying Jin had asked for food, a solitary gesture to his mouth and a quiet “hungry”, and Shoichi wonders how Jin’s voice must have sounded. Had his voice broken yet? He was at that age, after all. Shoichi had never heard his voice since Jin was six, and while he came back from that prison (more like a box) physically unharmed, the light never returned to his eyes.

He could run away from here, drive to Jin’s facility, and talk to him over hot dogs even if he won’t talk back.

But a strained noise from Yusaku snaps Shoichi out of his daydream.

He’s having night terrors again, gritting his teeth and shivering in his seat.

It’s not the first time Shoichi has seen this. Jin has nightmares just as severe too. The only sounds Jin has made since he returned are from the agonised groans he makes in his sleep. Sometimes, he screams himself awake.

“AHHH!”

Shoichi slams on the brakes and the van screeches too, the recoil snapping both passengers forward.

_...like that. He screams like that._

“Yusaku? Are you okay” Shoichi’s heart beats like a rabbit’s after that shock, but Yusaku’s even more so.

The boy leans forward, straining against his seatbelt, eyes wide and cold sweat on his pale face.

Meanwhile, cars beep angrily as they pass the hot dog van.

“I… I’m fine, Kusanagi-san,” Yusaku pants, “I just…”

“You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to. But I was driving and that was dangerous.”

“Thank you. And I’m sorry, Kusanagi-san.”

Fortunately, it’s not long to Yusaku’s apartment, so he can have his nightmares somewhere else.

“Get some rest, okay?” Shoichi wishes Yusaku well as he alights, the duel disk on Yusaku’s arm blinking in boredom, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

In the silence Yusaku left behind, the only sound in the van being the blinker as Shoichi finds his usual parking lot, he realises he can’t go on a random road trip when he has so much responsibility _here._

_Wait for me._

The van parked, Shoichi goes in the back and pulls out a chair, finally lying down to close his eyes.

_You will always be in my mind, Jin._

 


End file.
